"I do not repeat myself, nor do I fall into repetition!" That line is absolutely brilliant.

There's an unintentional genre known as "grimderp", which happens when people try to make grimdark but make it so dark it stops being scary and just becomes funny.

Literally everyone and everything in the story: *dies* Comic relief character: Z A P P E R S

You know I remember this time my sister was telling me about her perfect overpowered Harry Potter roleplay OC. When I questioned the complete lack of character flaws she explained that she gave her character the flaw of randomly violently murdering people for literally no reason. Because that's a character flaw that is a sign of brilliant and ingenious writing.

Next time I write a story it will be very dark. The plot isn't dark, but it takes place in a very dark room at night. The entire story will be about some guy sleeping.

love triangles are not edgy we need a love pentagram

Herein is my grimdark story. *THE BLACK PLAGUE* Once upon a time, there was a village. Someone in the village got the plague. Then, everyone died. The end.

There is an unintentional sub genre in grim dark called grim derp where it’s too edgy it’s just hilarious

Amoral = Lack of concern for the concept of morality Immoral = That deliberately acts against morality

Remember Ladies and gentlemen: grim dark stories are accurate portrayal of reality, and anything that shows anything positive and upbeat is false; hope doesn't exsist!

"How to to replicate WH40k and fail miserably" guide.

This is why orks are the best 40k faction-they’re both incredibly brutal AND hilarious, providing levity while still fitting into the grimdark setting.

I turned off the lights in the room to experience GRIMDARK in its full glory and witness all of its edges.

"Crude oil? That's made from *A N C I E N T D E A D C R E A T U R E S"* ...but ... but it is

2:12 "-behaves like a 14-year-old sociopath on a power trip." Soooo... Onision?

This is literally the only genre my AP English teacher will have us read and analyse. Granted those books are BETTER than most, but they're all dark and depressing and apocalyptic.

"Hey, you know how people like to feel happy? What if they diiiiiiiidn't?"

Everyone always looks to Nazis for an evil empire inspiration. Personally, I’d use the Aztec Empire for grim-dark, because there’s probably more material for body horror

[realizes that this is too much like the book I was writing] Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiit.

Fate worse than death = “you must do Calculus forever”. 10/10 for accuracy.

“Who wins the love triangle? Who care they will all be dead anyway” Oh the best kind of love triangle

I think the staple grimdark villian is the playfully insane guy who enjoys doing all the same horrible things the protagonist does the only reason the protagonist wants to kill him is because he is enjoying himself and thats illegal in grimdark.

''all innocent characters are killed in grimdark'' Godammit why'd you have to remind me of my boy sanguinius D:

"A Moral faction? We cant have that!" -40K on the Tau

Want a challenge, Make a grimdark story Without killing ANYONE

“I do not repeat myself nor do I fall into repetition” -Dark Lord 2018

Grimdark: Warhammer 40k for writers that don’t understand Warhammer 40k

This legit gave me the idea for a story involving something that twists traditional narrative on it's head by having someone with all the traits of a stereotypical hero actually being an egotistical sociopath, while the character who seems like the villain is actually a good guy that wants to help people. The story at the beginning gives subtle hints in the background to the true nature of the characters before it's then revealed in a surprising gut-punching way.

This story is called the Dark Edgy. Once there was a dark protagonist. He was so edgy that everyone died. The end

"Isnt this puppy adorable? You should get attached to it. OH NO IT'S DEAD! YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD!" Literally every anime I watch that kills off a cute character without earning the right to make me feel genuinely sad about it first.

5:40 Actually, a vampire that Livestreams his meals looks like a pretty fun villain.

“Some might worry this sudden shift will irritate audiences and break their suspension of disbelief to see a previously established sympathetic character suddenly decide that infants made for great sandwich spread” He just expressed everything wrong with game of thrones without even meaning too

GRIMDARK seems like the edgelord version of gothic literature.

Why does this fantasy novel full of giants, dragons, and magic, have so much violent, graphic, raping? OH CAUSE IT'S HISTORICALLY ACCURATE

"Like a thirteen year old on a power trip who objectively makes everyones lives more miserable" - you did not just sass Prince of Thornes :D

Drinking game: 1- Take a shot every time he says "GrIm DaRk" 2- Alcohol poisoning

Don't forget about how rape is always looming around every female in the cast.

"Like plastering everything with the colour black." I think you just walked into my wardrobe

And in grimdark films be sure to give the film a grey or black filter to show how sad, depressing and hopeless everything is. Because the makers don't understand that a dark tone is a metaphorical thing. It doesn't mean it has to be literally dark.

Oh, you like this tasteful Comments Sectio- OH NO ITS DEAD!!! I KILLED IT!!!! YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD!!

In the grimdark of the future, there is only WAAAGH!

It's simple: "It's night time" *WRONG!* "I lie here in the shadow of the Earth..." *Could be better* "And then a puppy died" *PERFECT!*

"Here is a puppy... get attached to this puppy.... now it's dead" Hirohiko araki wants to know your location.

I think that when all characters are actually well-meaning and moral, (even the villains) the "Grimdark" setting can make the plot events have more impact, so instead of the typical story that goes: "Yeah, everything sucks forever, and we're all gonna die, so this is a terrible person you should care about because... Nevermind, he's dead..." you make a story where characters aren't stupid, evil, and try to change their circumstances... Only to fail at that and fucking die tragically or something... Like the best written books in the 40K Horus Heresy series... I also think characterization is the only important thing to avoid the darkness-induced audience apathy, because everything is horrible, but at least you find this person interesting and want to know what happens to them...

You have no idea how hard this made me laugh. You also forgot to mention "And people will love your story and see it as mature because of all the sex and murder that happens - because it's 'realistic'."

“The author should present life as so awful that the reader seriously begins to wonder how people even get up in the morning.” Literally Club Penguin Shutdown in a nutshell.

Id feel insulted if 40k wasn't as comical as it is dark.

You liked the comment I originally commented didn't you? It was such a cute, lovable comment. BUT OH NO I KILLED IT YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD!

This is the Dark Souls of terrible writing advice.

"This is your average everyday darkness.....this is...ADVANCED DARKNESS"

Me: Where did my good mood go? Anxiety and depression: GONE! I killed it! You should feel bad. *Eternal darkness forever*

I like how there’s a bunch of people saying “so warhammer in a nutshell” despite not knowing how those stories actually play out Warhammer 40k plays out like a classic tragedy. Where characters have Nobel intentions but also one or two glaring character flaws, I’ll use the big E as an example The emperor sought to make humanity the dominant race, and after Millenia of observing humanity he had a few ideas on how to do it. He thought that to properly unite humanity he needed to be uncompromising, logical and not swayed by emotion, however these ideals festered and grew darker, as he took more and more atrocious actions for his cause, by the time of the great crusade he was all but human, and it was this that lead to his downfall. As his primarch sons viewed him as they’re father but he viewed them as mere tools and disregarded their emotions, it was ultimately this that lead to the rebellion known as the Horus heresy, and in his finally moments in the battle with Horus, his favourite son he is shown to have had some dormant humanity left in him, and he could not bring himself to kill his favourite son. The man who had ordered mass genocides had realised the error of his ways as he was finally forced to take the life what to him was a person, not some nameless, faceless crowd. Another thing that can be noted is that he thought religion divided humanity and conflicted with his ideals of rationalism, however centuries of harbouring this view lead him to be zealous in his anti religiousness, to the point of making irrational claims of there being no gods or supernatural powers despite the opposite being very much true and persecuting those who do not strictly adhere to the practices of your belief, and in the end his fanatical denial of religion lead people to believe “The emperor preached rationalism and free thinking, he also claimed fervently that he was not a god, yet he stood as a giant, with chiseled features, ornate golden armour and an aura of golden light, clearly this was a test, and he actually is a god” and this mindset bred the imperial cult with degenerated into a fanatical cult with no regard for free thinking. But instead of realising this people just brush it off and say that 40k is grimdark for the sake of grimdark

You forgot the most important step! Once you establish that the world is a terrible place coated in a neverending rain of misery and despair, you then have to figure out how to make things worse so that your characters have something to oppose!

The "oil is made up of ancient dead creatures" part really messed with my mind, thank god that isn't the case.

Bruh I didn’t realize how nice the grey background was until we lost it.

I like the idea of a GrimDark world slowly turning lighter and more sustainable over time. Or showing it in comedic way (like TTS for example).

You know, I find it ironic that grimdark writers forget dark humor exists. For example: "Welp, half our village is dead... On the plus side the food shortage is now no longer an issue." That joke alone would be both give context for how bad the situation is, and provide comedic releif so that the next tragedy might actually sting.

I appreciate the fact that the Guardsman blew up after firing his plasma gun. That got a laugh from me.

Neil Druckmann: "What?"

honestly i don't understand grimdark, like i enjoy darker themes in stories but if the ENTIRE story is just “this is so sad.. everything is sad, everything is so dark and edgy. nothing is good and everything sucks.” like i can't get into the story or anything because it's just overly sad

Blood for the blood god! Skulls for the skull throne! Milk for the khorne flakes! Salt for the popkhorne!

“Crude oil that’s made from ancient dead creatures”

"But it sounds like it will make a lot of money... unless you're DC" That didn't age well

I like 40k and Dark Sun and Berserk and, I laughed out loud, Multiple times.

In order to make grimdark truly work you need Orks. Because as much as it would be nice to paint the entire setting deep black, if you want your setting to go anywhere you'll get there faster if you paint it red.

May I humbly request "historical fiction" as the topic of your next video?

I think Neil Druckman took this video to heart when he was writting TLOU 2

There has to be some happy spots. Darkness isn't the opposite of light, but its absence. When grim is the default, the hope shines all the brighter.

What's the opposite of GRIMDARK? RAINBOWBRIGHT?

"Emodark" as it's called here

3:04 Hirohiko Araki mode, activate

As a WH40 fan, I enjoyed every second of this video.

I like The Dark Knight but that movie is singlehandedly responsible for the current "grimdark is realism" trend. The irony is that The Dark Knight is an optimistic story at it's core. It explicitly stated this theme when the boats refuse to kill each other.

I could press the like button, but that would imply positivity, and we have no room for positivity because this is GRIMDARK! Here's a baby bear, isn't it cute? Look at those beady little eyes. Well now it's dead, you should feel bad.

I love how every time he says "hero" it sounds like he has to gather strength to say it.

It always irrationally bugs me when people call literally anything about dark fantasy "historically accurate". I T I S N O T ""H I S T O R I C A L"" J U S T B E C A U S E T H E R E A R E C A S T L E S

In the grim dark of the far future, there is only bad writing.

Your sarcasm so accurately described _The Walking Dead_ that I was crying from laughter by the end. I used to love that series. Quit watching that soap opera two years ago.

I find that good grimdark stories (yes, they exist) usually have some sort of implied explanation for why everything is so bleak rather than have it be bleak simply for the sake of being bleak; furthermore, when characters are killed off in those stories, it's usually for a reason rather than just for shock value (though the shock value is still present).

I love how you can genuinely use these videos to write stories because he’s telling you what not to do.

Remember guys: There's no despair without hope. If you're story is incredibly dark from start to finish, the audience will stop caring. But throw in lighthearted moments, make characters temporarily happy, give them hope... Then, when something really bad happens, it'll _hurt._ Yeah, I know, you still shouldn't write a story just to make it dark. But plenty of stories benefit from that kind of tone, so you might as well tear your audience's heart out while you're at it. xD

0/10 The pants were too bright

He's just shown Zack Snyder's entire process. Lol.

the key component is the puppy-crusher 9000, it sacrifices a million puppies a day to power your toaster

I'm sorry but I can't take your grimdark world seriously because your weapons are not bedazzled with barbwire and jagged metal fins. Everything must be pointed and cut in the most inefficient way possible. Even guns and casual attire. Especially attire. Oh, almost forget, every weapon is poisonous, even if that is not how poison could work.

8-Bit Theater had the better idea for magic. Rather than having it powered by evil, have it powered by love. BM: "Love is a very powerful force. Even more so when it's focused into a coherent beam of destruction. Every time I cast Hadoken, it siphons away some of the love in the universe. I'm not sure how much, but I'm given to understand the divorce rate goes up with each blast."

"Will it break audience's willing suspension of disbelief to see a previously established sympathetic character suddenly decide that infants make for a great sandwich spread?" Looking at you, T'au...

Hmmm watching this after Game of Thrones season 8 episode Grimdark, this clip is gold.

So I've been writing a DnD campaign with elements of Grimdark. The way that I've done without it becoming a stupid parody is... a) The characters are genuinely good people and in a world that is getting worse and worse b) The fun gimmicks of each city have slowly become all consuming from war c) The characters are running away from that war d) The problem they are dealing with are personal, they aren't trying to save the world, just the friends they've made. e) The general tone is comedic, with the serious elements hiding in the shadows waiting to strike... I love it

One thing a lot of people forget is if you take away all hope form a story you also take away all fear. If I don't think things can get better then what's the point in trying?

I'm shining brighter than a star in this grimdark galaxy! Good luck killing us when the galaxy wants us to suffer so much that we constantly bring back our chapter from the brink!

I see Neil Druckman took this video seriously

0/10 forgot the impossible-to-pronounce town names To future Grimdark writers: Your story is worthless unless every single name contains at least a "k" and every town name ends in "burg" Pfft... your protagonist's name is Jhon? Nope unless it's Jkhonr I'm not reading it

One of the few channels that manages to consistently deliver info and entertainment. Keep it up!

5:02 Fates worse than death: "doing calculus forever" Me a mild math nerd: "I feel targeted and spied upon"

Who remembers Hecatomb? It was Grimdark: the card game, more or less, but it still had some darkly humorous moments. Still, a game about reaping souls to end the world for power was probably too dark. Cards being entirely plastic didn't help, either.

Once upon a time there was an edgy protagonist. He was so edgy that everyone slit their wrists. The end.

wait this whole series has been sarcastic?! But I already wrote a first draft of my story it has like 18 love triangles, love triangles within other love triangles, I have background characters with love triangles, and I even have a love dodecahedron. I guess this is all worthless now

1:48 Oh god, JP saw i coming. *Themes are for eighth grade book reports.*

In the grim dark future of 2020, there is no sponsorship but RAID: SHADOW LEGENDS